The Drowned Girls

It's another intense, nail-biting, horrifying read from Loreth Anne White. It's just that the main characters' personal issues kinda eclipsed the actual case. I'd like a little bit more profiling of the perpetrator, the background story etc. but as I said, the personal issues got in the way. Also, the romance part? A bit meh.

THE DROWNED GIRLS is the first installment in Loreth Anne White's adult, contemporary ANGIE PALLORINO mystery/ psychological crime thriller series with the addition of a little forbidden love and romance.

NOTE: THE DROWNED GIRLS contains mature scenarios of graphic violence, abuse and sexual mutilation that may not be suitable for all readers.

Told from several third person perspectives THE DROWNED GIRLS follows numerous paths that focus on the resurgence of a violent rapist who has upped his MO turning to mutilation and murder. Detective Angie Pallorino works the sex crimes division of the Metro Vancouver police department and the recent spate of violent sexual assaults is eerily similar to a couple of unsolved cases from years before. When the latest assault victim dies of her injuries, and another body washes up on shore, Angie finds herself with a new partner-homicide detective James Maddocks-a one night stand that demands something more. What ensues is the search for a killer while Angie and James battle the upheaval in their own personal lives-back home.

THE DROWNED GIRLS is a story within a story; a dark and gritty tale of a psychopath; a serial rapist and murderer who uses religion as his justification for his actions but THE DROWNED GIRLS is also a story that reveals the depths to which the powerful elite will bury their sins for a piece of the pie. The world building takes the reader into the seedy underbelly of a city gripped by fear; of a people controlled by sex and drugs; of a police department that begins to turn upon itself. As the Metro Vancouver PD begin to uncover the truth, secrets, lies, and betrayal become roadblocks to stopping a killer who is devolving with every victim and assault. I will be reading book two just to see how it continues.